Weekly Toronto Flick Picks: Kubrick Exhibit details, De Niro in T.O., and more

Weekly Toronto Flick Picks: Kubrick Exhibit details, De Niro in T.O., and more

By Paul Hantiuk

Published: Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014, 09:50 AM

The Kubrick Exhibit includes a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey

TIFF’s Kubrick Exhibit Details

Details were announced some time ago and tickets are already on sale, but as the exhibit draws near (or nearer), I felt it time to go over some of the screening options this retrospective is going to offer. Kubrick’s Odyssey is actually an international touring exhibit that debuted in 2004, but is now coming to Toronto for the first time. It’s also been to Los Angeles, Berlin, Rome and Krakow, and several other cities . Among the guests will be Kubrick’s widow Christine and his close friend Jan Harlan, and they are bringing extensive content from Kubrick’s own personal archives. I’m hoping to get a first-hand glimpse into the Napoleon project Kubrick obsessed over for years but never ended up making.

On November 1st you can go to a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the stars of the film Gary Lockwood and Keir Dullea—possibly the two least well-known stars of a great American film. Even more exciting is that 2001 is also being screened on the 7th and 8th with special effects wizard and director Douglas Turnbull in attendance.

Curator Jesse Wente has helped create a special viewing area exclusively for Toronto to make the experience unique, but there’s so much more, including cool artifacts like the “Born to Kill” helmet from Full Metal Jacket, critic roundtables, Kubrick’s early documentaries and, because why not, an appearance by Alan Cumming.

Robert De Niro and some guy from Twilight to film in Toronto

Keep your eyes peeled for teamsters and movie set trailers on your evening strolls as Mr. Jake La Motta, King of Comedy, Travis Bickle and some Focker fellow will be in Toronto to film the new Olivier Assayas film Idol’s Eye. According to the city’s currently-filming listings, the production is scheduled to start October 20th and will run until December 20th. It co-stars Robert Pattinson and Rachel Weisz and is being produced through I.E. Productions Ontario which, as far as I can tell, is short for Idol’s Eye? Either way, that is the top-end of a good cast, and if De Niro is used right, he’s still a screen presence. Assayas also made a really lovely French family drama called Summer Hours which I highly recommend.

Talkin’ Trash

I had a chance to chat with the dynamic duo behind The Trash Palace before their screening of The Mercenary last week. Stacey Case and Dan ‘The Mouth’ Lovranski were pretty positive about their new program at the Revue Cinema in Roncesvalles. The original Trash Palace was a highlight of the Toronto rep cinema scene for seven years on Niagara Street until it closed shop in 2012.

“By running an underground theatre that sold booze illegally for seven years we were never able to advertise. Now that we have a liquor license we can advertise,” said Case, “That’s a big change; that’s a welcome change. I can’t count the number of times we would be sold out at the studio for our Trash Palace screenings, wher, as the proprietor I would be scared, scared all night because I didn’t want the cops to show up.”

It was a charming but niche little hole in the wall that featured a usually overstuffed, fifty-space screening room with a small seven foot-wide screen, but where else could you see Force on Thunder Mountain or Sugar Hill and Her Zombie Hitmen? Now at the Revue, as Case points out, you can see those films two storeys high.

“At the old one, I would run the snack bar. I’d cook the hot dogs; I’d make the popcorn; I served all the drinks. I don’t have to do any of that now,” added Lovranski.

“It’s not better, it’s just different,” concluded Case. “What’s exciting is that we had a maximum seating capacity at the old place of fifty people. Well, we’ve had that at every show. From our perspective, we’ve had a sellout at every screening we’ve had at the Revue.”

Fair enough. Check them out November 6th for Z.P.G., a 70s sci-fi flick with the great Oliver Reed.

Selected Programming

Lots you could watch this week, but here’s some interesting local options:

Bloor Hot Docs has Cinema Politica tonight at 9p.m. featuring the new documentary I Am Femen on the subject of one Oxana who helped found the Femen activist movement that stood opposed to the regime in her home country in Ukraine.

Hot Docs also has screenings as part of Long Winter on October 11, featuring the documentary Depeche Mode - The Posters Came From the Walls about fans of the aforementioned band in the Soviet Union. There’s also a Toronto-premiere documentary about Suicide frontman Alan Vega.

And hey, free anime at The Revue if you book tickets on Eventbrite. Check the full schedule here. This week’s entry is Cyborg 009 at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Toronto Screengrab of the Week

Last week was the grand finale of the divisive Death to Smoochy—many loathe it, but there are some ardent supporters—taking place on the ice of the former home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and probable current home of a Loblaws produce section at Maple Leaf Gardens.